Price marking ticket



Oct. 19, 1954 A K, MARSH 2,692,083

PRICE MARKING TICKET lFiled Sept. 23, 1949 $5/ HG2. Flo.

INVENTOR ATTORNEY Patented Cct. 19, 1954 2,692,083 v Paros MARKING TICKET Alonzo K. Marsh, Ridgewood, N. J., assigner Vto Y A. Kimball Company, New York, N. Y.,.afcorpo ration of N ew York Application 'September 23, 1949, Serial No. 117,330

6 Claims. 1

This invention Vrelates to tickets and especially to tickets such vas Yare used for price and marking tags. More particularly, the invention relates to anew 4combination of sections in a single ticket with legends kon .at least Vone of the sectionsand coding characters on atleast 'the other section, though in the preferred embodiment of the invention bothsectionshave both the legends and the coding characters.

This application is a continuation in part of vmy copending application Serial No. 31,908, led July 9., v194B,.now abandoned.

In the accounting systems of large stores, tabulating machines are used; and tabulating cards for these machines are made by operators who actuate the keys of card punching machines by hand to record on the cards the necessary data.

' The use of such tabulating machines in stores has ybeen restricted, however, because of the high cost of hand punchingJ and smaller stores have been unable to afford their use. Furthermore, such tabulating cards cannot ordinarily be made a part of the price tags because if they were, the price tags would be so large that no merchandiser would permit them to be attached to his articles.

It is an object of this invention to provide a ticket, and particularly a price tag, with one or more detachable sections having coding characters that can be used to control sensing mechanism which will actuate the keys of a punching machine that punches tabulating cards. By using such tickets, all of the hand labor of the punching machine operators can be saved and more accurate records can be kept because errors of the punching machine operators are eliminated.

Most stores require at least twenty-five coding characters for putting on a price tag all of the information required for keeping their records of inventory, dollar volume of sales, kind of units sold and other data of value to the store management. With this invention the coding characters are small enough to get the desired number of them on a price tag of usual size.

One feature of the invention relates to a novel code in which certain digits are represented by individual holes at diferent positions in a punching area,and other digitsare represented. by com binations of holes that individually represent digits which add together to equal the digit represented by the combination of holes. Each hole represents a digit of value, and the digit zero is represented by a combination of holes that individually represent digits of Values that add up toa total of ten. With this code, a hole in a particular position always represents the same digit, whether the hole is used individually eras one of a combination of holes in a punched coding character.

Another 4object of the invention is 'to provide an improved priceticket .having two sections, atleast (Cl. 23E-431.12)

one iorprinted legends and at least the other for punched coding characters. One `feature of the ticket of this invention Sis the 4location of the printed legends and the corresponding punched coding characters on the 'same or adjacent lines on the ticket, either on the same section or on diierent sections thereof.

Another object is 'to provide an improved strip of tickets with openings located in position :to receive registration pins that locate the ticket accurately in the marking machine and subsequently locate it in an accurately corresponding position in the sensing equipment. The openings in the strip include also a feed slot correlated with the positions of coding characters so that a paWl or feed dog of the marking machine, in which the strip of tickets printed and. punched, cannot drag over the holes of .the coding characters and pull fuzz over them with resulting decrease inthe efficiency of the ticket for controlling Vthe sensing eduipment.

Other objects, features, and advantages of the invention will appear or be pointed out as the description proceeds.

In the drawing, 'forming apart hereof, in which like reference characters Aindicate corresponding parts in all the views,

Fig. 1 is a view showing a strip of tickets ernn bedying this invention.

'Figures 2 and 3 are views showing modified forms of control tickets.

Figure 4 illustrates the code that is preferably used for the punched coding characters of the tickets shown 'in the other views.

The tickets illustrated in the drawing areprice tickets with coding characters for controlling the sensingequipment that may be used to actuate the keys of punching machines for punching tabulatng cards. .No description of the sensing equip ment is vnecessary for a full understanding of this invention. lIt is enough to know that thepunched' coding characters control the sensing equipment. Although the vinvention will be described in connection with price tickets vor tags, it will be un.

derstood that it can be applied to other ticket-sin any lield where records are kept with tahulating cards.

Figure l `shows a strip of `individual price ticketsl i9, Il and l2., and-a portion of a-succeeding ticketv I3. Eachof the tickets it, H 'and i2 includes two sections l5 and i6 connected together along an Two lands Vare shown connecting each 'ticket with the next `ticket of the strip, but it will be understood that more @than two `lands can be used L,if desired. Beyond `and between the lands '2Q and 2|, the successive tickets kare separated from one' another yby narrow 'slots :having smooth edges.

There are feed slots 23 and 24 equally spaced along the length of the strip of tickets for engagement by a pawl or feed dog of marking apparatus with which the tickets are used. In the strip illustrated, the feed slots 23 coincide with the dividing line between successive tickets, and the feed slots 23 are merely Wider regions of the slots between the successive tickets. The alternate feed slots 2d are located along the incised lines I9 at which the sections I5 and I6 of the tickets are detachably connected with one another.

The feed slots 23 and 24 are preferably not located in line with any row of coding characters. The reason for this is that the pawl or feed dog of the mechanism in which the strip is used may drag on the surface of the tag between successive feed slots, and such dragging of a part of the machine across the small holes 45 of the coding characters might pull fuzz over the holes and reduce the efciency of the sensing equipment. The unperforated areas of the ticket which are not used for legends can be marked with the name of the store, as shown on all of the marked tickets of Figures l, 2 and 3.

The section I5 of each ticket Will be referred to as the control section since this section is punched with coding characters When the tickets are marked. Coding characters are preferably punched in the section I5 also, but if they are to be punched in only one of the sections they are punched in the control section I5.

The section I6 of each ticket is shown as having a string for attaching the ticket to merchandise. These strings 25 are merely representative of means for connecting the ticket with the article to which it refers. The section IS, to Which the string 25 is attached, is referred to herein as the tag section or customers section of the ticket.

When the invention is used'as a price ticket and an article is sold, the sales person detaches the control section I5 from the tag section I6 along the incised line I8 and'turns in the control section I5 to the accounting department.

The tickets II and I2 are shown in the condition in which the strip is supplied to a store or other user. This strip is put through a marking machine which marks legends and punches coding characters in the tickets. The ticket I0 at the end of the strip is shown With the legends marked on it and coding characters punched in it. In addition to printing and punching these legends and coding characters, the marking machine is equipped with means for severing successive tickets from one another as they are marked, the severing being performed by punches that shear out a portion of the ticket stock along the dotted circles 21.

The severing punches remove the lands 20 and 2l, and leave each severed tag with recesses 29 in its side edges Where the lands were located. The advantages of this method of severance is that it leaves each ticket with its original smooth precut side edge for locating it in a position in a hopper or other apparatus from which the ticket is fed to sensing equipment. If the lands were merely torn apart they would leave projections of irregular and non-uniform shape projecting beyond the smooth precut edges.

The recesses 29 which are left by the punching out of the lands can be used for insuring that the control sections I 5 are placed face up in the card stack holder of the sensing equipment. For example, the recesses 29 can provide clearance for tWo ridges extending lengthwise of the ticket stack holder and if any of the sections in the stack are turned face down when they should be face up, or vice versa, they will have no recesses in position to provide clearance for the ridges in the stack holder. This causes the control sections to buckle or block the insertion of the stack into the stack holder, thereby giving notice to the operator that one or more of the control sections are turned the wrong way.

In order to use the recesses 29 to insure that ticket sections are facing the right way, the recesses are unsymmetrically located with respect to the upper and lower edges of the control sections. Thus the recesses are located at different positions along the length of a guiding edge, if the ticket sections are turned over endvvise. If the sections are placed in a stack holder having ridges along the intended locations of the recesses 29, then a section turned over endwise will not have its recesses 29 in position to provide clearance for such ridges in the stack holder. If a section is turned over sidewise, then the recesses 29 are located on the Wrong side of the ticket section and the edge formed by severing the sections along the line I8 would be on the side which came against the ridges of the stack holder.

The ticket Ill has on each of the sections I5 and i6 iive lines of legends indicated by the reference characters 3i to 35. All of these lines of legends are shown printed on the front of the ticket, but in some cases alternate lines are printed on the back of the ticket in order to obtain more space for the printing equipment, some of which can be located on one side of theA ticket and some on the other in the marking machine.

Each of the ticket sections I5 and It also has five lines of coding characters indicated by the reference characters 3l to 35. These coding characters 3i to 35 correspond with the legends 3l to 35, respectively, and each row of coding characters is adjacent to the row of legends with which it corresponds. The location and pattern of legends and coding characters on the sections I5 and I6 are identical because the legends and coding characters on one section of the ticket are made by the same marking and punching apparatus that makes the legends and coding characters on the other section of the ticket, the tickets being moved for a distance equal to one-half their Width between successive operations of the marking machine.

In the tickets shown in Figure l, the order ci the coding characters is the same as the orderof the legends with which the coding characters correspond; that is, both read from left to right. This is not essential and in some cases the order Yof the coding characters is in the reverse direc necting successive tickets are severed from one another, but openings 39 are punched in the ticket along the incised line I8 when the tickets are made so that when the section 42 is detached from the section 4I, there are recesses in the left-..- hand edge of the section 42 similar to the re1 cesses 39 in the left-hand edge of the section 4I.

The openings 39 along the line I8 also produce .recesses Jin the :right-hand edge ofthe seetion 4l and `there would, therefore, the no Way of determining when such a section were turned over in .a stack. In order Vto `prevent the recesses in the .right-hand and left-hand edges of the detached sections from being symmetrical, the openings te" are made with a non-circular 4extension or siot at one end, and the punches that sever the tickets from one another, by punching out the lands 2li, have the same `shape as the openings 3Q with their slots lill.

Thus the detached sections Vhave slots lo extending inward from the recesses on the left-- hand'edge or the ticket but not on the right-hand edges. Any ticket that is turned over sideways is immediately detected in a stack because it exitends across the groove provided by the Islots 40 of the other tickets.

`Space can be saved on the ticket by locating the legends and the coding characters on the same line, as shown in 2. Because oi the small size of the holes used for the coding characters, the corresponding legends printed on the same line of the ticket are not obliterated by the coding characters.

At the bottom of the card the price is indicated by the row of legends 35 and by the coding characters 25'. it is a feature of the ticket of this invention that the price marking is at the bottom of the ticket and is spaced for a considerable distance from the next nearest legends. This makes it possibie to remark the price in the space immediately above the legends 35 and coding characters d5 if the priceis changed.

Figure 3 shows another modified form of the invention in which there are coding characters on the control section of the ticket, but no coding characters on the tag section of the ticket, and vice vversa. The strip shown in Figure 3 is moved for a distance equal to the fuil ticket width after each operation of the marking machine with which this strip is used. The modification shown in Figure 3 has the advantage that its control section 4i and tag section 42 do not have to be of ythe saine size, and in the construction illustrated they are not of the same size.

On each of the tickets of Figure 3 there are rows of punching areas, marked von the control section di. These areas are preferably square, and the outline of each punching area may be printed on the tickets by the manufacturer of the ticket. In the drawing, t ese punching areas are indicated by the reference character t4. These geometrical markings make it possible to read the coding characters of the control section even after separation from the tag section easily, be cause the location of each hole in its punching area can be readily determined by reference to the printed outline 'ii-5. On tickets, such as shown in Figures 1 and 2, the legends are marked on the control section `|`5 as well as on the tag section I6, the punching area markings 5d are not necessary.

.Fig 4 shows the novel code that is an important feature of this invention. The digit 1 is represented by a hole 45 in the `upper left-hand corner of the punching area. The digit 2 is rep resented by a hole 45 punched in the upper vrightu hand corner of the punching area. rfhe rdigit 3 is represented by holes 45 punched in both the rightand leitdiand upper corners of the punching area. It will be apparent that the combina tion of holes used to represent the digit 3 is made up of individual holes at locations which represent fthe digits one and two. These digits added together equal 3.

The digits 4 and 6 are represented by single holes in the lower right and lower left-hand corners, respectively, of the punching area. The code base is, therefore, the series of digits 1, 2, 4 and 6 represented by a single hole at the respective corners of the punching are-a. The remaining digits are indicated by .combinations of holes which taken individually represent digits that add together to equal the digit represented by the combination. It is a feature of the invention that the digit zero is represented by a combination of holes that individually represent digits which add up to ten. This is an important improvement over codes that have no holes when the digit zero is to be recorded. Such codes make no distinction between zeros and blank spaces. The code of this invention is also an .important improvement over codes that use one of the holes at one corner to indicate zero. Such codes have only three positions .left for value digits, and three value digits are not enough to make a code having all digits represented by the same coding characters and combinations of coding characters that 'represent digits which add together to equal the digit indicated by the combination. printing and punching machine can mark numbers separated by spaces as well as mark groups of numbers containing one or more zeros.

The actual size of the holes d5 can be of the order of .035" to .045 in diameter, spaced at distances between centers of .680 and .100, and experience has shown that good results are obtained with holes of sizes and spacings of these dimensions. Such lsmall holes d5 are very important in reducing the size of the ticket, and only by having tickets of small sise is it practical to use a ticket having two sections. It is possible to have the tickets smaller than those shown in Figs. 1 and 2 if a merchandiser is satisfied to reduce the amount of information recorded thercon. For example, the ticket can be made much shorter, as shown in Fig. 3, if only three lines of legends Vare used instead yof ive.

It is essential that the tickets be accurateiy lccated in the sensing equipment, :and it is also essential that the coding characters be accurately located-on the ticket at the time when it is printed and punched. In order to position successive tickets with respect to the code punching apparatus -of `the marking machine and subsequently with respect to sensing equipment, there are openings 5l, 52 and 53l in each or the sections l5 and I6 vof each ticket shown in Figure l. These openings -are disposed in a triangular pattern, the openings 5i and T52 being preferably spaced from one another along a `leg of the triangle which extends transversely of the strip vor tickets; and the openings 52 and 53 being spaced from one ane other along `another leg of the triangle that extends lengthwise of the strip `of tickets. This pattern is advantageous in that it accurately positions the ticket against transverse and longitudinal displacement and also prevents displacement combinations which would cant the ticket in the marking or sensing appanatus. Other patterns .of openings can be used, but for beet rc suits at least three openings in triangular form are necessary and these openings should from one another by substantial distances. In the construction shown their spacing is somee what greater than one-half .of the width of the sections in which :the holes are located.

Inthe ticket 'strip shown in Figure l., there are holes 5|, 52 and 53 in each of the ticket sections l5 and I6 because the strip moves for only the width of one section between successive operations of the marking machine, and the locating or registering pins are, therefore, projected into the openings 5i, 52 and 53 of each successive section.

Furthermore, the openings are located centrally oi the ticket i. e., the spacing of the opening 5E from the top of the ticket is substantially, aithough not necessarily exactly, the same as the spacing of the openings 52 and 53 from the bottom of the ticket. Likewise, the spacing of the openings 52 from the left-hand edge of the ticket is substantially equal to the spacing of the openings 53 from the right-hand edge. This adds greatly in securing accurate registration over the entire area of the ticket.

Figure 3 shows a construction in which the strip is moved for the full width of a ticket after each successive marking operation, and in this modication of the invention, it is sufficient to have locating holes 5l, 52 and 53 in only one ci the sections. When the locating holes are in only one section, however, it is essential that they be in the control section il rather than in' the tag section 4Z, because the same holes are usedv subsequently for locating the sections of the ticket that have been separated from one another.

The openings 5l, 52 and 53 are located between rows of coding characters so as not to interfere with the operation of the sensing equipment. Space is saved, therefore, by having the longitudinally spaced openings 52 and 53 located along a line parallel with the rows of coding characters so that the space between rows reserved for thi` opening 52 also serves for the opening 53.

The preferred embodiment and some modications of the invention have been illustrated and described, but changes and modications can be made and some features can be used alone or in different combinations without departing from the invention as dened in the claims.

I claim as my invention:

1. A price marking ticket comprising two sections of elongated rectangular shape detachably connected together along an incised line joining the long sides of said sections, printed legends and corresponding punched coding characters extending across one of the sections, identical printed legends and corresponding punched characters extending across the other section and at positions corresponding identically with those on the rst section.

2. A price marking ticket comprising two sections of elongated rectangular shape having a rst section with fastening means for detachably securing it to a piece of merchandise, and having a second section connected with the rst section along an incised line adjoining the long sides of said sections on which the sections can be separated from one another, printed legends and corresponding punched coding characters extending across one of the sections, and identical printed legends and corresponding punched coding characters in identical locations extending across the other section.

3. The marking ticket described in claim 1 and in which the punched coding characters on each section are located in rows parallel and adjacent to the rows of printed legends with which said coding characters correspond.

4. A price marking ticket comprising two sections detachably connected together along an incised line, each of said sections being of elongated rectangular shape, a plurality of lines of printed legends extending across each of said sections in identical locations, corresponding lines of punched coding characters extending across each of said sections in identical locations correspondingly related to the respective printed legends to which they correspond, each of said sections having at least three registration holes in identical locations identically related to said punched coding characters on the respective sections and arranged in a pattern distributed over an area of the section overlapping a portion of the area covered by said punched coding characters, whereby either of said sections, when detached, can supply identical coded information to a sensing machine and identical printed information to an observer.

5. A price marking ticket comprising two sections detachably connected together along an incised line, each of said sections being of elongated rectangular shape, means located near one of the short marginal edges of one of said sections for attaching said ticket to an article of merchandise, a plurality oi lines of printed legends extending across each oi said sections in identical locations, corresponding lines of punched coding characters extending across each of said sections in identical locations correspondingly related to the respective printed legends to which they correspond, each of said sections having at least three registration holes in identical locations identically related to said punched coding characters on the respective sections and arranged in a pattern distributed over an area of the section overlapping a portion of the area of the section covered by said punched coding characters, with each of said holes spaced from the short marginal edges of said sections by'a distance greater than that by which said attaching means is spaced from the nearest short marginal edge.

6. A price marking ticket as claimed in claim 4 in which one of said lines of printed legends and its corresponding lines of punched coding characters indicating price are printed and punched near the bottom edges of said sections leaving a blank area in each section above said lines and below the other lines of printed legends and punched coding characters and below said registration holes within which new lines of printed legends and corresponding coding characters indicating price remarks may be printed and punched.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 922,510 Rheaume May 25, 1909 1,236,475 Peirce Aug. 14, 1917 1,506,382 Peirce Aug. 26, 1924 1,508,095 Fuller Sept. 9, 1924 1,991,729 Brougham Feb. 19, 1935 2,010,642 Peirce Aug. 6, 1935 2,055,016 Paris Sept. 22, 1936 2,066,818 Beall Jan. 5, 1937 2,067,184 Green Jan. 12, 1937 2,080,150 Peterson et al May 11, 1937 2,093,555 Ford Sept. 21, 1937 2,155,928 Brand Apr. 25, 1939 2,183,559 Green Dec. 19, 1939 2,491,807 Freedman Dec. 20, 1949 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 126,246 Austria Jan. 11, 1932 

